In which Virginia introduces herself...

Hey hey, you you my name is Virginia (yes like the state, my mom is from there) and I'm an 18 year old music major from San Diego, CA.  This is going my first year at the University of California, Los Angeles which basically means that J. Lo and Orlando Bloom will be my neighbors for the next four years.  When I'm not on the internet or busy being my cat's personal scratching post, I enjoy doing all the music things.  I can play the piano, ukulele, and trombone, but also dabble with the recorder, otamatone, melodica, bass, and various percussion instruments (including the ever fabulous rainstick).  In addition to learning any instrument I can get my hands on, I enjoy composing, in particular film scores, which I consider to be my dream job.  Having had a childhood during the golden age of disney movies, I grew up listening to the classic sounds of Alan Menken, but I also greatly admire the works of Phillip Glass, John Williams, Joe Hisaishi, Wendy Carlos, and my favorite, Danny Elfman.

Outside of music, there are still many subjects that interest me. I've always found psychology fascinating, in particular abnormal behavior and social psychology, and am considering it for a minor.  During my time at university, I would like to study a bit of cognitive science, eastern religion, film, and german.  It would be spectacular if I could study abroad for that last subject.  

In my spare time, I vlog on occasion, read (everything except the romance novels with shirtless cowboys on the covers), and draw (cartoons are my specialty).  I'm also a bit of a TV junkie.  A few of my favorites: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, The X-Files, Merlin, Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, Doctor Who, Daria, Supernatural (the list could go on but I promised to only put few).  Some of my happiest moments have been spent wrapped in a blanket drinking hot cocoa while watching the Tennant seasons (DW).

Things I Dislike: Pickled foods, soap operas, ASPCA commercials with Sarah McLachlan singing, the guy that replaced Billy Mays.

Fun Facts: I like cats, longs walks on the beach, grey weather, and the smell of Lemon Pine Sol.

I look forward to getting to know you all and hearing about your adventures.  DFTBA!

-Virginia

Thoughts from Places: Old Main, Plato's Conspiracy, and Lincoln's Ass

Old Main

Hey guys, today I want to talk about my favorite building on Knox College campus and whatever else happens to pop into my head.

Old Main is my favorite building, with a close second being the library, both buildings where history fuses with the present. It's lucky that I like the building so much because at least 90 percent of my classes have taken place there. It houses the philosophy, history, and English departments which are pretty much all of the classes I've taken at Knox.

For a long time, I could not explain why I liked Old Main so much. I mean the architecture is nice, which I will come back to in a second, and every time I enter the building it feels like stepping into a weird time-locked world where the 1800s are somehow mixed seamlessly with modern technology, but I did not get it. Nothing really clicked in my mind until I took Ethics class with Professor Factor.

This is the Common Room in Old Main.

Professor Factor told us the history of the building and more about its architecture than I could have ever known. He told us about the Divine Proportion, also called the Golden Ratio, which Plato studied, and how it had been built into the building's every nook and cranny as a pagan rebellion against the Christian ministers who had commissioned the building of the structure.

The Divine Proportion is kind of difficult to explain. Mathematically it is an irrational number like Pi. It is about 1.6. For more information about the Divine Proportion go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

When it is used in architecture, the Divine Proportion signifies that the Divine is watching over that building and its power, the power of creation, is infused into it. I don't know about that, but I am a spiritual person and something about that statement clicked within me. For some reason, when I am within Old Main's walls I feel the creative juices flow stronger than at any other time. I could sit in that building and write for hours and be happy. I have done just that, in fact. I often wonder why that is the case. I guess that it does not matter so much as long as I'm happy creating there, but I want to know why. I'm a philosophy major, it's in my nature to question everything.

Some may say that I am feeling God's creative power run through me. I'm not Christian, but like I said I am very spiritual. I can feel the power that exists in that building, but it could be anything. Maybe the lesson we are meant to learn is that it doesn't matter what the thing that gives us that power is, only that it does. It makes us believe in ourselves more than we might normally because we think that there is some great force watching over us and lending us its creative energy. Whether you believe that force is God, the universe, or any other god or spirit from any age, that is okay. They are all equal. They all give us a power far greater than most people realize. They give us strength in faith. Not faith in some great power beyond us, but a power within ourselves, our souls. As long as we have faith in ourselves, we can accomplish great things. It is this that the Powers that Be gives, in whatever form they take in your mind, and for that I thank them.

The holy light of Plato's Good bathing Old Main.

Personally, I do like the idea of Plato's spirit guarding the entrance to Old Main like a bouncer to a club. That makes me smile. I'm just saying, it could happen.













The last thing I want to mention, on a much less serious note, is Lincoln's chair (see picture below). That chair is a piece of pride for our college. It is a testament to our history as an important institution in America. President Abe Lincoln actually used that chair when he visited Knox College after he climbed through the window and onto the stage outside just to show up his debate opponent who walked out the front door.

That chair also has seen more action since the mid 1800s than Genghis Khan! Okay, I may be exaggerating, but for some reason that chair seems to be a very common place for students to get some swoodilypoopin' fun on. More evidence that history is cool, kids.

Thoughts from a statistically significant place.

I tried really hard to think of somewhere that was I'd consider my favourite spot. Apart from my bedroom (cause it's where all my stuff is), nothing really came to mind. And I decided that I was taking the wrong approach. I was looking for somewhere meaningful and significant and metaphorically resonant, when what I really needed to look for was where I spend a significant amount of my quality time. Which led me to this place:

 

Somewhat accidentally, the collaborative study room on the ground floor of the library at uni is where a large proportion of my socialising takes place. A close second to its welcoming couches is the adjoining cafe:

Which subsequently led me to the conclusion that since starting uni my social life has consisted of hanging out with a rotating group of five to seven oddballs in either a study room or a coffee shop. In short, it has all the window-dressing of a (very boring) sitcom.

I find it fascinating how groups end up congregating around 'spots' - all through high school, for example, we hung out under the same fixed umbrella in the same courtyard. It seems that this might be a case of Truth in Television. And the geography of those places comes to shape the way your group interacts, what pastimes you bring there, what you talk about and how you talk about it.

Inevitably, you end up defining your group by where they hang out, like the friends in Friends and their coffee shop, or the community in Community in their study room. And it makes me worry about what's going to happen to my group of friends once we don't have some central, constant place - if not to call our own, then at least to temporarily stake claim to over a lunch hour. Where will we meet? Will we find another table, another sofa? Or will we drift apart if we don't have anything physical to force us together?

And what happens to the places? Will they grow new groups to replace us? Is there another group of mates hanging out in our courtyard now, under our umbrella? Will they be anything like us? Will they make the same jokes, about the ragged looking bushes and the stack of apple stickers on the umbrella pole as we did, and will they wonder if anyone was there to make jokes before them? Do they define themselves by that dozen-odd square metres of space like we did?

Because that's the thing about these spots. They seem private and fixed and intimately yours when you're in them, but when you're gone, they just go back to being furniture. I guess ultimately, if I had to come up with a moral for this TfP, it'd be something like this: Places by themselves are meaningless. It's the people in them that make them interesting.

Thoughts From Places: My Little Spot

I am a person who, these days, prefers to stay in her little room instead of randomly venturing outside, making my choice for a favorite place rather limited. I’m pretty sure my actual favorite place is my bed, but while I could write an ode for it, I don’t think…yeah no. So instead, you are getting what is likely my second favorite place. Or third. Or fourth. I don’t usually rate them.

In Helsinki there is a large blindingly white building, raised on a podium of grey, stony steps, looming over the Senate Square. It is The Helsinki Cathedral, designed by Carl Ludwig Engel, completed towards the end of 1800‘s. And on its steps, there is a spot I always choose to sit on, just off to the side, on the other side of the railing, out of people’s way, where I can look down upon the Senate Square without being disturbed by others.

It is a high place where the cooling wind caresses me no matter how hot the weather seems to be. There I could sit through the whole day, enjoying beautiful architecture, and watching tourists and the birds that are all too comfortable with humans by now. Actually, I’ve done that; I’ve spent a day there a couple of times, silently looking at things and drawing. And earning some sunburns since there is no shadowy shelter where I choose to sit. But I find it entertaining and calming to watch the people from the safety of my little spot.

the cathedral as shot from my spot

I can’t help but to be curious about tourists. A lot of them are elderly. What ever the age and nationality, I like watching them as they climb up the steep stairs, huffing as they go, maybe giving me a glance and a quick smile, as if to say, “Man, this climb“ when they grab the railing by me and use their arm to help them up. Then, on the top, they turn victoriously to marvel at the view over the statue of Czar Alexander II of Russia, and the old buildings surrounding the square. They take their photographs, maybe sit a spell, then, eventually, they have to climb down. Something I see all of them slightly dread doing as they realize how high they are and how steep the way down is. But when they are finally standing on the street again, there is another, perhaps more wistful, victorious glance up at the steps. Usually there are more photos too. This is a ritual most seem to do there. Surely it could work as a metaphor for life itself, but I don’t think I will go there.

Then there are the people who want to sit on the steps for longer than few minutes and pick their place in a knowing manner. They the spot, they open their books, dig their lunches out of their bags, or enjoy the sun, pointing their noses slightly upward, seeking the heat. Often these people are Finnish, perhaps students of the university located nearby. I can’t help but to wish I was studying at that university, just to be able to venture over to the steps to read more often than a couple of times a year. Yet again, maybe I would grow bored of doing that, you can become numb to almost everything after all.

As I now think about observing these people, I am reminded of a time when I was younger. I used to imagine what it would be like to be someone else, to a point where I vividly imagined what that someone was seeing at that moment. Then I would wonder what really made me me. And as my 9-year-old brain tried to grasp this, I started to feel like nothing chained me to my body anymore, and I’d move my foot, just to make sure, I was still me. With the twitch of a foot, I was back. Though I don’t feel like I’m gently floating away anymore, the tendency to wonder what it would be like to be someone else never quite went away. When I look at those tourists, and those people who carefully pick their place on the steps of the Helsinki Cathedral, I wonder what it would be like to be them. And sometimes, I find people, who make me wish I was them. Yet often I just silently sit there, at my spot, drawing, and hope that someone notices.

"I love being in cities with lots of other people because I’m reminded that there are billions of people like me and we are each stuck inside of our minds feverishly trying to crawl out to make connections with other people." - John Green

ConBravo 2012

So I went to ConBravo this year!

ConBravo is a small convention held at the Holiday Inn in Burlington, I went for the first time last year, and had a pretty awesome time. So this year when I heard it was happening again and more people from Channel Awesome were going to be there I just had to go back.

What is Channel Awesome you say? Well check out That Guy With the Glasses and immerse yourself in the nerdy awesome that is Internet Reviewing. Then get back to me!

This year, The Nostalgia Critic, The Nostalgia Chick, Linkara, Spoony, Paw, Maven of the Eventide, The Angry Video Game Nerd and Doctor Holocaust were on the list of special guests. Having many of times told my old roommate that I needed to hug all of them, this seemed like the opportune time to get that started, in the least creepy way possible.

My kinda creepy photos taken over people's heads.

So the adventure started at 6:30am on Saturday morning, where I made my way to Chelsey's House carrying my life in a suitcase. We hopped in the rented car, stopped off at Tim Hortons and got coffee, tea, ice caps, everything we would need to make it through the first half of our day. We drove to the Con, signed in and got into our very first line. The Linkara and Spoony signing.

After that we went to a very useful panel on "Creating an Online Persona" followed by The Channel Awesome Q&A.

Also, I found Batman, errr well maybe it's Abed dressed up as Batman. When you think of it, it is kind of ridiculous because now you can dress up as someone who is dressing up as someone else. Stop and think about that for a bit.

BATMAN

The last panel we made it into was hosted by The Nostalgia Chick on "Being a Girl on the Internet" This panel was both interesting and important because it focused on how to deal with idiots online. Most of my income comes from video production and blog posts, and given the recent events, which we all discussed on in our facebook group this seemed like an interesting topic to hear from first hand from those who have had bad experiences. The Nostalgia Chick (aka Lindsey) managed to be really funny, but really informative on the subject. Out of all of the panels I went to, this one was the most open and felt more like a dialogue between the Panel Runners and the Audience. I really wish I had managed to record it, but the sound wasn't that great.

After that, we went to the Dance for a bit, got kind of bored and headed off to the Bad Fanfiction Readings. I'm hoping to channel some of that into the wonderful story that we are all writing. The most memorable story we listened to was about a Gothic Vampire Girl who went to Hogwarts, and goes on a date with Draco Malfoy to see a Good Charlotte Concert. Draco then drives them in his flying car to the Forbidden Forest where they have sex only to be caught by Dumbledore.

Instant classic.

Sunday was a little less rushed. We got in line for the Channel Awesome Signing and after waiting for 2 hours we didn't get in. Luckily, the one Reviewer that we really wanted to meet, tweeted that he felt really bad that not everyone could make it into the signing and that if you came up to him he would sign "ALL THE THINGS". We managed to catch him when we were leaving and got his signature in our books.

Also, Linkara was walking around talking to fans and taking pictures. So this happened:

It's not really the best picture of me. But it's very clear that I'm very happy.

You also can't really talk about Conventions without talking about the shopping aspect. I bought myself a PS2! Which I am SUPER EXCITED ABOUT! But the best part of my hall was a replica of the Elder Wand. I really need to start working on a wands display. I have two of them now. The Elder Wand and Voldemort's Bone Wand.

All in all, I had a really awesome time. It's great when you can meet the people who inspire you and it's great to meet new people who can inspire you further:

I mean seriously guys, check this guy out on youtube. I kind of fell in love with him (as creepy as that sounds).

DFTBA!

Sarah likes to do a lot of things!

I AM BACK.

From now on, I'll try to post frequently again, but let's face it, I will forget or procrastinate or don't have time - the usual.

For the last week I was traveling around Europe with le boyfriend; I took the train to Berlin (which takes over 7 hours and I hate going by train... it's boring and I hate train toilets and it's usually loud and annoying. I watched the first two episodes of Game of Thrones AND WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT IT'S NOT THE BEST SHOW TO WATCH WITH CHILDREN AROUND? Boobs and sex and blood all the time, I tell you, those kids are educated now!). I've been in Berlin two years ago, so we didn't really do any sight seeing, I was just looking for comfortable shoes because my Converse were already killing me before going on a week long city trip. Didn't find any, feet hurt now.
Then we went to Amsterdam; I really liked that city! It's somehow unique with all it's canals and houses and boy, the Red Light District! Europe is pretty open with sex, but I've really never seen anything like that. If you walk down a street there it looks like this: Sex shop, pizza place, sex shop, coffee shop, naked woman in the window, burger place, Brazilian restaurant, hostel, sex shop, another naked woman in the window. All the sex seem so normal there, like nothing to hide, and I actually like that. Not that I'm particularly fond of hookers, but you get my point.
Then we drove to Paris. Paris is... okay. I like the sights, but for me that city (Berlin too) is just way too big. They are usually so dirty and I hate the metro because it's always smelly and disgusting and everything is so far away... I'm a small town girl. We went to the Louvre (side entrance, no queue - not like the main entrance where there was an endless queue), which was pretty cool and so huge. But holy crap, what are they doing with the poor Mona Lisa!? There were so many people in front of that tiny painting (behind glass, a bar, a rope and security guys) that it was nearly impossible to get a look. I'm not even a big fan of that particular painting, I think Da Vinci had much better and more interesting paintings. Guess the name is all...
What else I liked about Paris...? The fireworks on July 14th were pretty cool, in general the mood on that day/night was nice, but they closed down the metro and we didn't manage to get back to our hotel until almost 2 am.
In Amsterdam almost all people spoke very good English, but in France it's really impossible to find a person who speaks any language except French (I guess you are the exception, Tangerine!). And the thing is, they don't care if you don't speak French, they will just talk to you in rapid French anyway. At the hotel the situation is like this: Woman: noenoösdhfaöoinfwehfoihefaskjdnksad petit déjeuner kaskdkashdonadkbfkwb chambre asldnksdnf? Me: Eeeeehm... oui? I've learned French for four years, but thanks to our idiotic teacher I can't understand more than three words and can't speak more than two words (I understand it pretty okay when it's written, but that's not always enough). Man man man.

To the theme, or actually traveling is one of my favorite activities, so I sneakily already rambled about that!
It's hard to pick a favorite activity, so I will also list some things I like to do.

Watching TV shows: who would have thought that. I like to watch new episodes, I like to rewatch old episodes and I like to make marathons from time to time where I just watch five episodes of a show in one row.
I don't really like to watch movies on my own, but when I'm together with my boyfriend we watch a movie every evening. We watch some good movies, we also watch a lot of crap, and sometimes we make trilogy marathons (he doesn't want to watch all in one night, so we have to split it to one movie a night). We've watched both Star Wars trilogies in a row, Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, American Pie and our next project is Spiderman.

Internet: another surprise there. If people ask me what I do online all time, I honestly have to say: I don't  know. I watch videos on Youtube, I hang around Facebook (mostly to write in groups and make fun of people), I browse Tumblr, lately also Pinterest...
I run an online TCG (trading card game), which is basically like a normal TCG, just that all the cards are online and you have games to earn cards etc. My TCG is about traveling and I started a food TCG, but it's rather dead at the moment. For those, I have to code some stuff, which is something that I really like to do. HTML and PHP are like a puzzle, you sometimes need a lot of time to figure out a simple thing and in the end you just forgot one letter or something like that.

Lately I got into crafting, I started cross stitching and I really like to sew. I'm actually pretty decent at that, I already made a laptop sleeve and a bag for my headphones. I still have to learn how to make zippers and how to sew button holes, that's still a complete mystery to me. And my next big project will be a quilt, but you know that already!

From time to time, I have playing phases, but those usually pass after a while. Sims, Minecraft, Plants vs Zombies, Burger Shop on the computer and Fable II, Lara Croft, Assassins Creed II and Fifa 12 on the XBox. I also got Skyrim for my birthday, but I didn't really have much time to play that yet and I have no idea what I have or should do... any suggestions/tips?

And now I will stop rambling and go on to my favorite activity number one: TV shows!

But What Would My Character Do?

And now it is time for me to post about my favorite activity, well one of them. I have to say I was a bit torn on this matter, I wasn’t sure what to go with. I already posted an entry about drawing in the form of a very unhelpful work in progress explanation, so, I don’t think I’m going to talk about that again. Then there’s my absolute favorite activity, watching TV shows and videos online while chatting to a friend. I don’t think that would make a decent blog entry. So, I think I’m going to talk about play-by-post or post-by-post role-playing.

Now, an explanation for those who do not know: Post-by-post role-playing is sort of like acting in the form of collaborative story-writing. You have your character(s) and you post from their view point while people you are playing with do the same from the view point of their respective characters. This form of RPG can be done on almost anything from e-mail or instant messaging to forums. I don’t think I will go any deeper than that in my explanation because things vary depending on your preferences and where you role-play and so on. Here’s an example of an RP, I’m quoting an actual game I have going on, and the quote is from the middle of a thread so it might be a bit confusing to follow, but you get the basic idea of that role-playing might look like.

• Player 1: Kylie Velasquez

Relief flooded her system as she saw the ambulance. She listened to Gaines talk, then said, calmly, "You two can go, the rest of us will follow." As soon as Caine was on the gurney and in the ambulance, though, Kylie whipped around, facing the way they'd just come. Her hand found her sidearm and drew it slowly as she stalked back to the soldiers. Both hands were on it as she pointed it to the ground, moving closer. 

She raised her weapon slowly toward the soldiers, still walking. She was not about to let them get away with this shit.

• Me: Nancy Lawson

Nancy had been backing up away from the crowd, following the group treating Caine, while remaining several steps behind to keep an eye on the crowd and the soldiers. When the shots were fired, she felt one of the bullets fly past her leg, nailing a man's calf. He tipped over like a cow. She, however, kept her gun pointed at the ground and didn't look away from the soldiers, it was better for everyone that at least she knew what they were doing. Luckily, most of them seemed to be completely oblivious to Nancy's presence and no one was pointing a gun back at her. 

When she heard the rustle of steps from behind her, she turned, only to see Velasquez sneak towards the crowd with her gun pointed at the soldiers. Her eyes widened slightly and she immediately considered her two options: Disappear into the chaos for safety now, or talk. Usually Nancy was the one doing the stupid things, but even she had her limits, and in this particular company, her limit came up faster than usual. She edged next to Velasquez. "Don't tell me you're about to do something stupid." Her voice was lowered to avert attention from others.

• Player 1: Kylie Velasquez

"They're shooting at civillians, Lawson," she hissed, slowing a bit. Lawson was making her think, now. Damn it. Even if they were shooting at civilians, it didn't seem like the were aiming directly at them. And what was one cop going to do against ll these soldiers? 

Show them that not everon was just going to bend over and take it from them, that's what.
She continued on, but didn't leave Lawson in the dust. In other words, she was willing to hear the woman out if she wanted to reason with her.

• Player 2: Faina Song / Victor Cage

Faina was thrown into a horrible bout of indecision as soon as the colony founder was in the ambulance with two seemingly capable people accompanying him. She was going to be left to do something else now, but she had no orders. She could go back and join the Allies in breaking up the scene that had been threatening to turn into a riot, but she could also leave. She could resume her patrol or return to the ARF for new orders. 

What time was it? She looked to a thin watch around her wrist. Her patrol was almost over anyway . . . 

Vic recognized her uncertainty as soon as the ambulance doors closed and the Happy Medical Bunch seemed to prepare to take off at the speed of light. So, he approached her, getting close to her so he wouldn't have to be loud as he said, "Get out of here. You were told to escort the group transporting Marcus Caine. Once that was done, you didn't have orders, weren't aware of the expectations in dealing with this mess, didn't want to make the situation worse by unknowingly going against the orders given to the group tasked with handling it."
Faina looked up at him blankly. 

"You don't wanna be here," were his final words before he turned to look for Kylie, only to find her being a complete idiot. 

Yet again he found himself calling after her: "Velasquez!" and hurrying to catch up with her and Nancy.


As soon as he was close enough, he grabbed his partner's shoulder and tried to pull her back enough to stop her. "Unless you wanna get killed or tossed in jail, you're gonna want to be heading the other way now. You too, Lawson," he added, tossing a look at the other woman. "And if you're looking to get killed or jailed, I'm gonna have to be annoying, pretend I've got superiority because of the equipment between my legs, then toss you over my shoulder and take you away . . . or just drag you. I'm feeling a little sore after carrying Mr. Caine."

• Me: Nancy Lawson

"Sure they are. But don't you--" Nancy began but was interrupted by none other than Victor. Which was good, she was not particularly skilled at this whole convincing responsible statement thing. Although she had a killer 'this is how you survive' speech.


As Victor threatened them with the powers of his equipment, Nancy turned to him, lowering her gun completely. "I hope to god you meant your partner here and not me. I was being a good girl for once." She blinked at him. "And my legs, not that tired."

• Player 1: Kylie Velasquez

She'd been set and ready to argue with whatever rationale Nancy had to throw at her.
And then Victor showed up. Fuck him. 

Kylie groaned, turned to the man and got in his face, finger pointing at his nose accusingly, ready to tell him off. "You--" She just seemed to look angry about everything, and then made a frustrated noise and whipped her hand back down to her side. "--are significantly uglier when you're right." She shoved her gun into its holster and stormed off, pushing past Cage to head away from the trouble. 

Victor Fucking Cage. Since when was he even right and reasonable?
Damn it.

• Me: Nancy Lawson

After Kylie stormed away, Nancy placed her gun into her holster and gave Victor a long estimating look, narrowing her eyes. "...Nah. Still handsome."

• Player 2: Victor Cage

Vic had nothing to say to Kylie. It wasn't like he was going to argue with her, especially since she was doing what he wanted her to do. He didn't need to argue his merits as a potential mate, and hell-- it wasn't like he was one to take insults very seriously.

Of course Nancy got his attention with that look she gave him. Her words prompted a small frown and a shrug. "That's what I thought," he responded before raising a brow at her then putting on a nonchalant face. "Let's get out of here."

It was time to let this mess be whatever it would be-- to survive to fight another day.

So, yeah. I mainly role-play on forums, it‘s where I started playing and I‘ve found it to be best suited for me - it allows me to have as much time as I want to write my reply, there is no risk of hitting a character limit, and I don't have to be online for my fellow players to be able to write their responses. Forums also provide a nice, clean looking format, which makes it easy and enjoyable to read a thread.

I have maintained several RP forums, I’ve been a moderator on several (including an RP resource site) and I’ve been a member on many, many more. Right now I’m a member on three RP forums (one of which I also help maintain) and they are enough to keep me busy, especially when I have several characters on two of them. At its best, RPing is fun, exciting and addictive, and you might find yourself surrounded by a wonderful community. It's a great creative outlet for me (especially since writing a single story alone feels difficult for me) and, can't lie, it's also a nice form of escapism. Hell, I think I owe a great deal to role-playing, it improved my English significantly, and thus it allowed me to do better at my studies and at my matriculation examination.

All right, I think that's about it. (If you have any questions about play-by-post role-playing etc, do ask!)

100th post! Also Stuff I Like to Do

Woo! 100 posts! Congratulations everyone!

In other news, I have two activities that I want to talk about today: writing and D&D which I guess is actually an extension of just hanging out with friends, but I digress.

Writing for me is the most wonderful torturous way to spend a day. I love to create stories and characters in my head. I do it all the time when I'm in cities. I like to sit and watch total strangers walk by and make up stories for who they might be based on just examining their demeanor and their clothes. It's fun, but writing is hard work. I have trouble getting my words on the page without filtering them through my perfectionist mind.

I often get asked why I write. I get exasperated looks when I tell people that I want to be an author. I tell them that I don't write because I want fame or to be rich. I don't write because I think it will bring me eternal glory. I write for two reasons. The first is that I can't imagine what I would do if I stopped writing. I love to create, like I said.

The second is that I want to make a difference, even if my writing makes only one person a bit happier. That's enough for me.

Ok the third reason is because most of my idols are authors and I want to follow in their footsteps. Can you imagine how awesome it would be to write sentences like John Green? Not exactly like his, because that'd be stealing, but you know what I mean.


D&D has been a part of my life since elementary school and it's how I've met most of my best friends who I will cherish for the rest of my life. Plus it's my favorite game ever. It's even better than Skyrim, which is practically blaspheme.

What makes me feel the most alive: A Fahrenheit 451 Post

My uni library has the best editions of classic books.

So I'm not sure if anyone else here is reading Fahrenheit 451 with John right now. I've been meaning to read it for ages. No, really. Not in the "Oh, I should read the classics" kinda way, which, aptly enough, is decried as the precursor to the downfall of civilisation in the book. I've had this on my list in an "I read A Sound Of Thunder about six months ago and realised that holy crap can Ray Bradbury write, I should find some more of his stuff." kind of way.

And I think this is a much better place to discuss it than a Youtube comment thread.

I'm not going to put too fine a point on this: This book scares the living daylights out of me. Because we have a wall-sized TV. I have tiny thimble radios in my ears right now. I spend a great deal of both time and money on superficially interacting with imaginary people on a screen. I think Ray Bradbury would be horrifed with my addiction to webcomics, a medium in which more than three panels before "the gag and the snap ending" is considered unusual. And with the utmost respect to what John and Hank do with the medium, making the extent of your discourse a series of four-minute videos would probably horrify him too.

At the same time, I have to look at this optimistically. Sure, it's a four-minute video, but if just one percent of the people who've commented actually bother to read the book, that's four hundred people who've read a brilliantly written, extremely thought-provoking classic science fiction novel. And I think that probably gives me at least as much hope as the book itself took away. I'm certain it's not a coincidence that John chose this book. It's not long, and it's compelling to read, but it challenges the hell out of a lot of what we do, especially on the internet.

John asked this question in the video: What makes you feel the most alive?

I'm pretty sure it's this: (and I'm still assembling this argument from bits of the book, and bits of the video, and bits from my mind, so it's going to take a bit to get to the point, but you can damn well sit through it).

Captain Beatty says the purpose of life is to be happy, to stay happy, all the time.  I think it's important we don't equate that with asking "what makes you happy". Really being alive, I think, is about pushing yourself. It's about experiencing the broadest possible range of ideas and emotional states and points of view, of which happiness is really only a tiny subset. I feel happy when I'm downing a season of a TV show, but I don't feel alive. Whereas riding my bike through the pouring rain makes me feel savagely annoyed, and freezing cold, but it also reminds me that I am absolutely, undeniably, alive.

There's a reason people push themselves. There's a reason we run marathons and break into abandoned buildings. There's a reason John Green gets up on stage in front of thousands of people despite an actual medically diagnosed anxiety disorder. There's a reason we get excited when we find the Higgs boson or when we send a rover to land on mars. (Totally pumped for Curiosity landing, by the way.) I think it's because deep down, we know that pushing ourselves (or being pushed) to experience, is what it's all about. Even if we aren't very good at putting that conviction into action all the time. Seven minutes of pure unadulterated mars-lander powered terror is worth a lifetime of numb sitcom-induced happiness.

I haven't read past part one yet, so I'm not sure what conclusion the book comes to, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's something very very similar.

So now it's your turn to answer. What makes you guys feel the most alive?

Ali likes to do stuff.

So it's been a while since I posted on here, and we seem to be in a state of hibernation, but it's all good.
I was desperately trying to think of what to post for the last to weeks, and for food, all I could write were foods that I liked. For study abroad, I had nothing to write as I've never studied abroad, and I don't intend to :)

So to the current post. My favorite activity...

How can anybody pick just one? I guess if I was allowed to only pick one, it would be cuddling. That's an activity right? Big squishy hugs are the best pastime in my opinion.

Other than that, I do like to partake in a little internet browsing from time to time, and by time to time, I mean every possible moment until my eyes hurt from staring at the computer screen.
Well I do also like reading (I got 2 John Green books for my birthday; yay!), playing the sims 3, playing my sexy sexy clarinet, going to the cinema, eating out, spending time with my lovely boyfriend and dancing around my bedroom to cheesy music when I think no one is looking.

I think the things I like to do are pretty standard and as far as I can think there isn't anything I've left off this list (I'll probably think of something as soon as I've posted this).

So yeah,
Smell you later :)